Stanwell Antique 136 Sandblasted Bent Egg Estate Briar Pipe, Danish Estates

Description

Stanwell is one of Denmark’s most celebrated and enduring pipe companies, having been founded by Poul Nielsen shortly after the second world war. Over the last six decades, Stanwell has established itself as both a leader in innovative Danish design and for producing well-priced pipes with precision construction and engineering. Many of its designs were created for the company by iconic pipe-makers in the Scandinavian scene, such as Sixten Ivarsson, Anne Julie, Jess Chonowitsch, and Tom Eltang.

Stanwell’s Antique series was one that paired some of the make’s classic designs with a partial sandblast finish, a flared, ebonite stem, and an acrylic ferrule reminiscent of dark amber. It is, as far as I’m aware, one of the few series produced by Stanwell that significantly altered the original shapes such pipes were based on. This one, for example, is a shape 136, which was originally a relatively simple, saddle-stem bent egg designed for Stanwell by Tom Eltang. I asked a friend of mine, who knows Stanwell pipes very well, when he thought it might have been made. He suggested that, owing to the white, crowned S stem logo, as well as the lack of a registration number, the pipe was likely an early 1980s product, as Stanwell switched to a golden, crowned S as standard later into the decade, before dropping it around the turn of the millennium.

The condition is very good. There is some finish fading on the rim, as well as what looks to be a small nick in the acrylic ferrule on the pipe’s underside, but these are cosmetic, and I’d say they don’t especially detract from the pipe’s “antique” aesthetic, let alone its smoking properties. I’ve reduced the price accordingly, in any case.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.82 / 20.82mm

Bowl Depth: 1.33″ / 33.78mm

Weight: 1.2oz / 36g